During their walking tour around the center of Vladivostok with staff from the Arsenev Museum, ILS students learned that among those visiting the city at different times were famous writers such as Chekhov, Balmont, Fadeev, Khlebnikov, Burlyuk and Solzhenitsyn and that the first time a film was shown here was in 1897 in a cinema on the site of today's GUM shopping center.

Our 9th graders discovered many interesting facts while visiting the Millionka labyrinth, for example, that long ago Vladivostok had Porto-Franco status, which enabled the small port town to quickly grow into a thriving city.

"To walk down streets where life was bustling more than a century ago is very interesting," says ILS 9th grader Ilona Khlyustova. "It turns out that Chinese people played a very important part in the life of Vladivostok. For example, they worked as water carriers when the city had no water pipelines, bringing water into the city from Sedanka. At that time, it was probably hard for any family in the city to imagine life without a morning visit from Chinese with fresh vegetables or fish."

Over the course of their 90-minute tour, the 9th-12th grade students absorbed a great deal of new information and exchanged impressions of the fascinating life of Old Vladivostok.

"Expanding our students' knowledge of the city we live in is no less important than the academic program," says ILS Principal Olga Shevchenko. "There is still much more that they can learn, but each of our students took away something valuable from this visit, something we hope can serve them well in their future life."